General Style Manual

The style guidelines provided here should be followed in preparing manuscripts for submission to any journal of the Plant Management Network. Authors submitting Variety Trial results should follow guidelines and examples provided in the Variety Trials section.

Title. Unless otherwise indicated, all manuscripts submitted for publication in a PMN journal must have a title that is descriptive of the topic discussed in the manuscript and contain a verb.

Authors. List all authors by their full names, e.g., Jane E. Doe, (unless the author uses initials only) and provide their affiliation including title, department, institution, or company, and location.

Acknowledgments. Acknowledgments may be included with Research articles and Reviews after the text and before the "Literature Cited." Authors may acknowledge any financial or other assistance associated with the work reported or the development of the manuscript.

Abbreviations. Avoid nonstandard abbreviations in text. These may be used in tables (see "Tables," below). A partial list of acceptable abbreviations is available at the PMN conversions page.

Apparatus and materials. Names of unusual proprietary materials and special apparatus should be followed by the manufacturer's name and address in parentheses (city and state [United States] or country). It is only necessary to cite these materials by specific name if the work cannot be otherwise replicated. Trade names may be used and should be capitalized; trademark symbols should not be used.

Common names of plant diseases. Use Common Names of Plant Diseases (1) for the accepted common name of a disease.

Chemical terms. List pesticides by their approved common or generic names. Brand names can be included parenthetically when a pesticide is first mentioned. The current Farm Chemicals Handbook (2) and the most recent edition of Acceptable Common Names and Chemical Names for the Ingredient Statement on Pesticide Labels (5) are good sources. Use the chemical name if a common name is not available. The Merck Index (4) and Hawley's Chemical Dictionary (11) are good sources for checking spellings of chemical terms.

Scientific names.

Authorities for Latin binomials. Citation of authorities for Latin binomial names is optional. When used, authorities should be given only at first mention of the primary organisms discussed (hosts and causal agents). After first use of binomials, the name can be written by abbreviating the genus, e.g., P. infestans for Phytophthora infestans. For trinomials, the name can be written by abbreviating the genus name and spelling out the specific epithet and subspecific epithet, e.g., P. graminis var. tritici.

Bacteria. Spell names according to Bergey's Manual of Systemic Bacteriology (10), the Approved List of Bacterial Names (14), or the List of Bacterial Names with Standing in Nomenclature. Designations below the level of subspecies should be italicized. Where applicable, designate strains.

Fungi. The preferred source for common and scientific names and authorities of fungi is Fungi on Plants and Plant Products in the United States (6), Ainsworth and Bisby's Dictionary of the Fungi (8), or the CABI databases.

Insects. Common Names of Insects and Related Organisms (15) can be used to verify insect names.

Plants. Farr et al. (6) is a good source for spelling of common and scientific names. Other good sources are Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (19), A Checklist of Names for 3,000 Vascular Plants of Economic Importance (17), and The Plant-Book (12). Regional floras may be used. Use the term "cultivar" for agronomic and horticultural varieties. Identify the source of cultivars and include CI and PI numbers when appropriate. Enclose the name of a cultivar in single quotation marks only when it immediately follows the botanical name.

Viruses. Current guidelines for virus names and a searchable list of virus names are available at http://www.scri.sari.ac.uk/vir/ictvhome.html. Further details regarding taxonomic usage can be found at http://www.apsnet.org/phyto/submit.asp.

In formal taxonomic usage, virus family, subfamily, and genus terms should be capitalized and italicized with the name of the taxon preceding the taxonomic unit (18). The full name of the virus should be in italics with the first word capitalized. For example, "Family Bromoviridae, genus Bromovirus, Brome mosaic virus" and "Genus Sobemovirus, Southern bean mosaic virus." In vernacular use, the virus family, subfamily, genus, and species should be lowercase, not italicized, and the name of the taxon should follow the term for the taxonomic unit, e.g., the "bromovirus genus." The name of the taxon should not include the formal suffix, e.g., "the bromovirus family," not the "bromoviridae family."

Software. Software used should be treated as a proprietary material or apparatus. Give the manufacturer or developer name in parentheses with location (city and state or country). Software such as that produced by SAS should not be cited in literature citations.

Statistics. Describe statistical methods with enough detail to enable the reader to verify the reported results. Always specify the experimental design and indicate the number of replications, blocks, or observations. Identify the computer program used to analyze data if appropriate. When a quantitative factor (e.g., temperature) is studied, it often is desirable to use regression instead of analysis of variance. For qualitative factors (e.g., cultivar), analysis of variance and mean separation tests can be used, but the specific procedure and significance level should always be indicated. Whenever possible, researchers should consult a statistician before designing an experiment and when analyzing results. For more information see Johnson and Berger (9), Madden et al. (13), Swallow (16), and Gilligan (7).

Units of measurement. Results may be published in either English or metric units of measure. In choosing a system of units, authors should consider the needs and preferences of the intended audience. A table giving conversions between systems is available to authors and readers on the PMN conversions page.

Units of time. Day is never abbreviated. Week (wk), month (mo), and year (yr) are abbreviated only in tables. Second (s), minute (min), and hour (h) are always abbreviated if preceded by a numeral.

Literature cited.

References should be cited in the text by their numbered position in the alphabetized reference list. Always cite the original source of publication, whether print or online. List references in alphabetic order by authors' surnames. When citing multiple works by the same author, list articles by one author before those by several authors. Determine the sequence by alphabetizing the first author's surname and coauthors' surnames, by the year of publication (most recent last), and if necessary, by the page numbers of articles published in the same journal. Italicize Latin binomials, capitalize German nouns, and insert diacritical marks as needed. List specific pages of books. Refer to the BIOSIS List of Serials (3) for accepted abbreviations of journal names.

Check the accuracy of each citation and that each is cited in text. Only references generally available should be listed in Literature Cited. Do not cite work that is in preparation or submitted but not accepted for publication. No more than 20 references should be cited for a research article.

Online publications. Materials originally published online by established sources should be cited as published online. Publications that were originally published in traditional print form but which were also available or referenced online should be cited as print publications.

Citations for online material should include sufficient information for the material to be located online (e.g., author(s), date, title, publication name or sponsoring organization, and publication number or equivalent identifier, if any). However, the URL of the material should not be included in the text of the reference, as electronic addresses and locations are frequently changed. Include the material's URL to permit a link to be provided implicitly within the text of the citation, e.g.:

Dorrance, A. E., Berry, S. A., Bowen, P., and Lipps, P. E. 2004. Characterization of Pythium spp. from three Ohio fields for pathogenicity on corn and Soybean and metalaxyl sensitivity. Online. Plant Health Progress doi:10.1094/PHP-2004-0202-01-RS.

If the referenced online material is not from an established or formal publication, it should be referenced in text as a personal communication (requiring the same verification from the authors as any other personal communication). Online software, programs, models, etc. that are used to analyze data should be cited in text by referencing the sponsoring organization and program, e.g., NIH Image is available online from the National Institute of Health.

Illustrations.

When deciding whether a manuscript should be accepted, rejected or accepted pending revision, reviewers for PMN journals will consider whether the illustrations are of a high quality and ready for publication. Authors should take great care in the preparation and electronic formatting of figures.

Cite all figures in numeric order in the text of the manuscript. To facilitate editing and review, provide a list of figures and captions at the end of the manuscript after the references. Provide images as e-mail attachments or mail them on 1.4MB diskettes, 100 MB zip, or CD-ROM. The storage medium can be returned to the author upon request. Image files must be named for the corresponding author, followed by the appropriate figure number and the appropriate file extension, (e.g., Smith1.jpg, Smith2.gif, Smith3.tiff). The storage medium must be labeled with the journal, first author's name, figure numbers, computer platform, and file extension, e.g., Plant Health Progress, Figs. 1, 2, 3, Zayas, IBM PC, .tif files. Unusable files may result in delays in publication. If you have questions please contact Kurt Gegenhuber by e-mail at editorialoffice@plantmanagementnetwork.org.

Photographs. Illustration files should not be merged, imbedded, or linked to the text file, but kept completely separate. Appropriate formats for figures are JPEG, GIF, TIFF, or Photoshop (PSD) files. Photos should contain a minimum of 500 pixels along the largest dimension and should be cropped to show only essential details. Scale bars should be included where necessary to indicate scale and magnification.

Graphs and Line Drawings. Submit graphs and line drawings as GIF, TIFF, or as Windows PowerPoint documents. Graphs and drawings measuring more than 500 pixels along the largest dimension are preferred. Avoid lettering, numbers, and lines that are too bold for coordinate axes and curves. Avoid the use of too many colors in graphs. Use only standard symbols (boxes, circles, triangles) or other typographic elements in figures and graphs. If necessary, please provide a key to any symbols as part of the figure. Graphs and charts should be boxed with opposing tick marks on the inside. Amino acid and nucleotide sequences should be supplied as figures, not tables.

Tables. Tables should be used if the information they convey cannot be expressed in the body of the text. Use tables to present numerical data that show comparisons or interrelationships; lists should be incorporated into the text. Tables should stand-alone and be intelligible without reference to the text or another table.

Due to the requirements of the online format of PMN journals, the maximum width of tables is 6 inches when displayed in a word processing program in 12-point text. Submit tables to the journal using the table function of the same word processing program used to submit the text. Cite tables in numeric order in the manuscript. Do not repeat data in the text that are given in a table or figure. Numbers should be rounded to significant digits. Ditto marks should not be used. Abbreviations are acceptable; explain any nonstandard abbreviations in footnotes. Footnotes are designated with superscript lowercase letters. Vertical and horizontal rules and boldface type must not be included in the data field.

Literature Cited

1. American Phytopathological Society Committee on the Standardization of Common Names for Plant Diseases. 1994. Common Names for Plant Diseases. APS, St. Paul, MN.

2. Anonymous. (Current) Farm Chemicals Handbook. Meister Publishing Co., Willoughby, OH.

3. BIOSIS. (Current) Serial Sources for the BIOSIS database. BIOSIS, Philadelphia, PA.

4. Budavari, S. 1989. The Merck Index. 11th ed. Merck & Co., Rahway, NJ.

5. Environmental Protection Agency, Pesticide Regulation Division. (Current) Acceptable Common Names and Chemical Names for the Ingredient Statement on Pesticide Labels. EPA, Washington, DC.

6. Farr, D. A., Bills, G. F., Chamuris, G. P., and Rossman, A. Y. 1989. Fungi on Plants and Plant Products in the United States. American Phytopathological Society, St. Paul.

7. Gilligan, C. A. 1986. Use and misuse of the analysis of variance in plant pathology. Pages 225-261 in: Advances in Plant Pathology, vol. 5. Academic Press, New York.

8. Hawksworth, D. L., Kirk, P. M., Sutton, B. C., and Pegler, D.N. 1995. Ainsworth and Bisby's Dictionary of the Fungi. 8th ed. CAB International, Wallingford.

9. Johnson, S. B., and Berger, R. D. 1982. On the status of statistics in phytopathology. Phytopathology 72:1014-1015.

10. Krieg, N. R., and Holt, J. G., eds. 1984. Bergey's Manual of Systemic Bacteriol-ogy. Vol. 1. Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore, MD.

11. Lewis, R. J., Sr. 1993. Hawley's Condensed Chemical Dictionary. 12th ed. Van Nostrand-Reinhold, New York.

12. Mabberley, D. J. 1987. The Plant-Book. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

13. Madden, L. V., Knoke, J. K., and Louie, R. 1982. Considerations for the use of multiple comparison procedures in phytopathological investigations. Phytopathology 72:1015-1017.

14. Skerman, V. B. D., McGowan, V., and Sneath, P. H. A., eds. 1980. Approved Lists of Approved Bacterial Names. 2nd ed. American Society for Microbiology, Washington, DC.

15. Stoetzel, M. B., ed. 1989. Common Names of Insects and Related Organisms. Entomological Society of America, Lanham, MD.

16. Swallow, W. H. 1984. Those overworked and oft-misused mean separation procedures—Duncan's, LSD, etc. Plant Dis. 68:919-921.

17. Terrell, E. E., Hill, S. R., Wiersema, J. H., and Rice, W. E. 1986. A Checklist of Names of 3,000 Vascular Plants of Economic Importance. USDA Handb. 505.

18. Van Regenmortel, M. H. V., Fauquet, C. M., Bishop, D. H. L., Carstens, E., Estes, M., Lemon, S., McGeoch, D., Wickner, R. B., Mayo, M. A., Pringle, C. R., and Maniloff, J. 1999. Virus Taxonomy. Seventh Report of the International Committee for the Taxonomy of Viruses. Academic Press, New York.

19. Webster's 10th New Collegiate Dictionary. 1994. Merriam-Webster, Springfield, MA.